Director, External Communications

This role acts as a driving force behind both protecting and promoting our brand. On the PR side, you will manage day-to-day media relations and support complex issues management. On the External Marketing side, you will shape Clark’s external presence through highly creative project storytelling, digital channels, industry forums, and targeted marketing campaigns.

Your overall goal is to protect and enhance our brand, leveraging creative visual, written, and technical marketing savvy to get the right messages in front of the right audiences. This includes mastering and optimizing modern distribution channels—such as web, earned media, paid media, SEO, and LLM results—to maximize reach, engagement, and impact. This is a hands-on role for someone who can think strategically and creatively, write clearly, work seamlessly across teams, and move quickly when needed.

Responsibilities We value candidates who are aligned with our values, highly motivated, collaborative, thoughtful, and comfortable working in a fast-paced environment.

Responsibilities include:

Public Relations & Brand Protection Media Relations:
Lead day-to-day media relations, including reporter engagement, media monitoring, response planning, briefing materials, and message development.

Issues Management:
Support sensitive communications matters in close coordination with legal, operations, senior leadership, and outside advisors.

Complex Communications:
Support and guide communications for high-profile, sensitive, or highly complex projects.

Discretion:
Maintain confidentiality and sound judgment when working with sensitive business, client, project, or personnel information.

Storytelling & Distribution Creative Content Generation:
Draft and edit compelling external materials, including press materials, statements, talking points, website copy, social content, and project narratives, continually pushing for innovative ways to tell Clark's story.

Technical Distribution Strategy:
Drive the tactical distribution of content by applying a deep technical understanding of digital algorithms, SEO, LLM search behaviors, and platform analytics to ensure maximum visibility.

Marketing Strategy:
Plan and manage Clark’s external marketing strategy across websites, media, social media, advertising, industry platforms, and other public-facing channels, utilizing data and creative insights to continually optimize campaign performance.

Narrative Building:
Serve as a connector between Clark’s business and external audiences, translating company priorities, project milestones, and market activity into highly creative communications opportunities.

Strategic Leadership & Industry Engagement Strategic Planning:
Develop external communications and marketing plans that support Clark’s business priorities, reputation, and brand visibility.

Executive Support:
Prepare senior leaders and subject matter experts for media interviews, speaking engagements, panels, and other external opportunities.

Relationship Management:
Build and maintain relationships with reporters, editors, industry publications, trade associations, and other external stakeholders.

Market Insights:
Bring relevant media, industry, client, and market insights back into the business to inform communications planning and external engagement.

Agency Management:
Work with agency partners and outside advisors, as needed, on media relations, reputation management, digital strategy, and project-specific communications.

Team Leadership & Content Ownership Team Leadership:
Lead and mentor a content creation team to ensure great story telling, consistent brand voice, and quality across all platforms.

Channel Ownership:
Take ownership of the organization's website and social media channels, overseeing the strategy, content updates, and performance analytics to drive engagement.

Basic Qualifications Bachelor’s degree in communications, journalism, public relations, marketing, public affairs, English, or a related field.
10+ years of experience in external communications, media relations, public affairs, corporate communications, or a related field.

Strong writing and editing skills, including experience drafting…